Was at our cabin this weekend for a m/l hunt. Last night we got on the subject of cleaning the guns. 4 of us there, and everyone cleaned theirs differently. We had soap & water, windex, cleaning jag w/ #13, solvent & brush.

Got me thinking....I wonder how other folks clean theirs?

What do you guys do, and/or what have you found to be the most effective?

I use Pyrodox, Lose Powder and Pellets. Dish Soap and Water with a Nylon Brush works the best. I have a Stainless Steel Barrel and just a few strokes and she's clean. I do use Montana Extreme Bore Conditioner in the Barrel and Im sure this helps a-lot, but the SS Barrel is mostly the reason, clean up is fast and easy.
(BP)

I do use the Windex Patches, but there mostly to swab between shots, the No13 Bore Cleaner on Patches I will run through after the Soap and Water Clean but it's usually clean enough and the no13 Patches come out clean as a whistle, it's just to see for sure that the dish soap and water did it's job, it always does.
(BP)

It depends...

Are you talking about flintlocks or percussions guns using real black powder or are you talking about an inline using substitute black powder???

Yeah, I guess I should have mentioned that. We were all using inlines....and pyrodex or 777.

Inlines=Blackhorn=Hoppes Elite
Traditionals =Windshield washer alcohol 50/50 in field- soap hot water home

Inlines.. (all but black horn 209) I remove the breech plug and shoot Simple Green down the barrel. I shoot from the breech to the muzzle and I hold my finger over the end of the muzzle. I then tip the barrel up and down letting that Simple Green run back and fourth in the barrel.

Then I saturate a couple patches with Simple Green and go from the breech up to the muzzle. Working the patches back and fourth on the threads before heading up the barrel. Usually after three patches I start doing dry patches and the barrel is clean. Also the breech threads are clean.

So I Simple Green the parts, then swab the bore of the barrel with a good gun oil, wipe down all the parts with that oil patch, assemble the rifle again, wipe down the barrel, put it back in the stock, wipe off the scope and attach that back to the bases, and I am done.

I use MAP- Murphys oil soap/90% Iso alcohol/ peroxide to clean then oil the bore and the outside.

I use cold water but I only shoot black powder.

A few patches saturated with cold water.
A bronze bore brush.
A few more cold water patches.
A couple dry patches.
Compressed air to blow the water out.
A squirt of WD-40 and a couple dry patches to get any moisture left behind.
A squirt of RemOil for protection.

I'm only chiming in to see if my method is incorrect. My buddy who got me into the traditional ML taught me to clean with HOT soapy(dawn,etc) water, placing the breech end in the bucket and cycling water through with a patched cleaning jag. Afterward I pour more hot rinse water down the barrel. Lately, after reading here, I follow up w/ a windex patch and then-only because it's handy, I place the barrel muzzle down in front of the pellet stove for 10 mins or so before swapping ends for 5 more mins.
If I were putting the gun away for a while I run either a bore butter or Rem oil patch down the bore, otherwise I reload for the next a.m.